Pull-out hangrod



March 31, 1942.

E. L. cLousE PULL-OUT HANGROD' Fil ecl Feb. 24, 1941' & *c\ L (House,

ATlbx-mg Patented Mar. 31, 1942 PULL-OUT HANGROD Earl L. Clouse, GrandRapids, Mich., assignor to Grand Rapids Store Equipment Company, GrandRapids, Mich., a corporation of Michigan Application February 24, 1941,Serial No. 380,213

8 Claims.

This invention relates to an extensible hangrod and particularly adetachable mounting therefor of simple, novel, practical and eflicientcharacter.

I have heretofore made application for patent, Serial No. 312,872, filedJanuary 8, 1940, which will issue as Patent No. 2,233,733, on March 4,1941, for Mounting for hangrods.

A rod carried on the mounting is located within and extends between theends of a case or cabinet and on such rod garment hangers from whichgarments may be suspended are placed. The mountings are adjustable inheight to any one of a large number of positions. The present inventionis concerned with an extensible pullout rod which may be mounted withinand at an end of the display case or cabinet, and extended outwardly sothat a garment taken from the main rod, after being examined need not beput back within the cabinet, but be supported by placing its hanger onthe extended pull-out rod of the present invention.

In the course of displaying garments which a customer is examining witha view to purchasing, several of the garments may be tentativelyselected and hung from the extensible pull-out rod, and eventually thecustomers have a comparatively few from which to choose, and which fewhave been earlier selected from the large number housed by the cabinet.

The present invention is concerned with an extensible rod of thecharacter noted, and with a means for detachably and adjustablyconnecting it with the same supporting means used and upon which themountings for the main hangrod are adjustably supported. The presentextensible rod will be mounted a short distance above the mainsupporting rod and when the carrying mountings of the main rod arelowered or raised in the cabinet, the extensible rod construction of thepresent invention may be correspondingly adjusted if desired. Theinvention is of a simple and economical character and with the meanswhich I have devised may be instantly applied and latched securely inplace, the latches used being releasable so that the structure may beremoved entirely or for replacement in another position.

An understanding of the invention may be had I from the followingdescription taken in connectio with the accompanying drawing, in which,

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary horizontal section through one end of a case orcabinet showing the extension rod of my invention mounted at the innerside of a cabinet and within the cabinet in retracted position.

Fig. 2 is a similar view showing the device extended beyond the front ofthe cabinet.

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the construction shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary front elevation illustrating the manner in whichthe extensible rod carrying sleeve is supported at each end on andwithin the end of a merchandising holding case.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary transverse section showing in detail thereleasable latching engagement of the extensible hangrod with itssupports, and

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary perspective view of one end of the extensiblerod sleeve in which the immediate extensible rod portion is slidablymounted for longitudinal movement. I

Like reference characters refer to like parts in the different figuresof the drawing.

The case or cabinet with which this invention is used has vertical endsI spaced horizontally I case a, plurality, usually three, supportingmembers 2 are pivoted, located in spaced relation to each other anddisposed Vertically and embedded in the ends of the case. Suchsupporting members 2 preferably are made in channel form from sheetmetal, having spaced apart sides 3 integrally connected by a U-bend andterminating in oppositely turned flanges 4. The U-shaped supportingmembers are inserted and held in vertical slots out at the inner sidesof the ends I of the case. Each of the sides 3 thereof is provided witha large number of vertically spaced tongues 5 struck inwardly towardeach other, those at one side extending downwardly and inwardly and atthe other upwardly and inwardly, so that the tongues overlap in pairsand thereby make a continuous series of spaced apart transversesupporting elements between the sides 3 of the channel members.

As previously stated, these channel members 2 in practice are preferablyused three in number on each end of the case, one being adjacent thefront edge of the case, one near the rear thereof and the remaining onemidway between. It is on these supporting elements that the hanger rodmounting of my patent previously referred to are detachably held asfully shown and described in such patent.

With the present invention a tube 6 of sheet metal is provided of alength substantially equal to the distance between the front and middlesupporting members 2 described. The tube at each end has permanentlysecured therewith a flat metal plate I which at one side has a lateralextension 8 terminating in an upwardly extending finger 9 (Fig. 6). Theplate I is extended downwardly and offset to provide an arm I!) on whicha manually operable latch is pivotally mounted. The latch is made offiat metal and has an arm ll terminating in a latching dog I2 andincludes a second arm I3 located at an angle to the arm H and integraltherewith. At the juncture of the two arms H and I3, the pivot l4 passestherethrough and is carried at the lower end of the arm l0.

Such sleeve with the attaching devices described, one at each end, isadapted to be operatively connected with two of the pairs of supportingtongues 5, one located directly over the other, while the latching dogis adapted to be releasably engaged with a third of the pairs of tongues5 next below as shown in Fig. 5. The

hook 9 engages with the uppermost of the tongues 5 selected. The loweredge of the lateral extension 8 rests upon the next tongues 5 below,while the latching hook I 2 is turned to engage with the adjacenttongues 5 next below. The parts 8 and 9 and the latching dog are in thesame vertical plane. The arm I3 is manually operated to turn thelatching dog to the holding position, shown in Fig. 5, or to turn itback to releasing position as shown in Fig. 6.

An elongated rod l5 approximately twice the length of the sleeve 6 ispassed therethrough and mounted for free slidable movement. At its rearend it has a stop provided by a washer held by a screw as at I6. At itsfrontend it has a knob I! to be grasped for pulling the rod l5 outwardfrom the position shown in Fig. l to that shown in Figs. 2 and 3.

In the outer position, garment hangers with garments thereon may besuspended from the extended rod member i5 and in such case will bedisposed at right angles to the main supply of garments suspended fromthe main longitudinal hangrod in the case. Garments initially ortentatively selected for further examination will be removed from themain hangrod and suspended from the extended member l5.

It is evident that the extensible hangrod construction which I havedescribed is one which is very quickly and easily released to either beremoved in its entirety from the cabinet or ad justed to a new position.The construction while of a simple nature has proven very practical anduseful.

The invention is defined in the appended claims and is to be consideredcomprehensive of all forms of structure coming within their scope.

I claim:

1. A pull-out hangrod comprising, an elongated sleeve, a rod mounted forslidable longitudinal movement therein, members of flat metal connectedone at each end of the sleeve and disposed transversely thereof, eachhaving a laterally oifset section terminating in an upwardly extendingfinger providing an upwardly open hook and also having a downwardlyextending arm, and a latch pivotally mounted on each of said downwardlyextending arms, said latch having a downwardly open hook positioned inopposition to the first mentioned hook.

2. A pull-out hangrod comprising, an elongated horizontal sleeve, a rodlonger than the sleeve extending therethrough for slidable movement,stops at opposite ends of the rod to engage 'against opposite ends ofthe sleeve, connecting devices secured one at each end of the sleeve,each provided with a fixed upwardly extending hook and a pivotallymounted downwardly extending hook below the first mentioned hook, as andfor the purposes specified.

3. A pull-out hangrod comprising an elongated horizontal sleeve, a rodlonger than the sleeve extending therethrough and slidably mountedtherein for longitudinal movement, stops at opposite ends of the rod toengage against opposite ends of the sleeve, transverse plates connectedto opposite ends of the sleeve and through which the ends of the sleevepass, each of said plates at one side having a lateral extensionterminating in an upwardly turned finger to provide a fixed hook open atits upper side, and each of said plates having an arm extendingdownwardly below the sleeve, and a lever pivotally mounted at the lowerportion of each arm, said lever having two arms located at an angle toeach other, one being for manual operation of the lever and the otherterminating in a downwardly turned hook, as specified.

4. A construction containing the elements in combination defined inclaim 3, each of said arms on the plate being ofiset from the plane ofthe plate a distance equal substantially to the thickness of said platewhereby said first mentioned hooks and associated levers are disposed insubstantially the same vertical planes.

5. A pull-out hangrod comprising, an elongated sleeve, a rod extendingtherethrough and slidably mounted therein for longitudinal movement, andsupports connected with said sleeve each including a thin hook memberopening upwardly and extending transversely of said sleeve.

6. The combination of elements defined in claim 5, combined with a latchmember pivotally mounted on said support below said hook.

'7. A pull-out hangrod comprising, an elongated sleeve, a rod extendingtherethrough for slidable movement, connecting devices secured to saidsleeve, each provided with an upward extending hook and a downwardextending arm and a second hook pivotally mounted upon said arm.

8. The combination of elements defined in claim 7 in which said downwardextending arm is oiT-set and said second hook is pivotally mounted onsaid oiT-set portion whereby the two hooks will be in the same plane.

EARL L. CLOUSE.

